Most furniture has a lacquer coating or “film” on certain portions of its external surfaces. Those skilled in the art know that conventional furniture polishes form at least one additional fill layer on top of the furniture lacquer coating or fill. “Smearing” of a polished furniture surface occurs when a shearing force is applied to an area or region along the surface of the furniture polish film layer.
“Smears” can be caused by such factors as the diffusion of reflected light rays, the exposure of the underlying substrate surface, and so forth.
The ability of a polished furniture surface (i.e., the furniture polish fill layer) to return to its original appearance after being smeared, and the amount of time required to return the furniture polish fill layer to its original appearance, are two factors which tend to be important in evaluating the performance of any furniture polish composition or formulation.
Furniture polish compositions or formulations possessing superior smear recovery properties have long been desired. Commercially-available silicone-containing furniture polishes, however, and in particular the surface-applied films they produce, typically lack this particular quality. Indeed, many conventional dimethyl silicones tend to deposit films which exhibit “bronzing” i.e., a tendency to streak. Moreover, many dimethyl silicones, which are commonly found in furniture polishes, are liquid and naturally tend to smear.
To reduce “bronzing”, formulators of a number of presently commercially-available furniture polishes incorporate certain additives—such as waxes, oils and/or surfactants—into many of their dimethyl silicone-containing furniture polish formulations. The addition of such additives to a furniture polish formulation, however, often produces undesirable effects. For example, the addition of wax to such a polish formulation generally reduces the ability of the resultant polish film to exhibit total smear recovery; while the addition of oil and/or surfactant tends to make a smear more visible, which is generally undesirable.
Thus, commercial furniture polishes that use conventional silicone-containing or conventional silicone-based fluids, as well as certain conventional waxes, surfactants and/or certain oils, seemingly initially tend to provide certain desirable surface-appearance values but, in fact, ultimately suffer from a variety of inherent disadvantages.
Efforts have been made to overcome these known disadvantages of prior art silicone containing furniture polishes. An example of such a composition is found in Miller, U.S. Pat. No. 5,112,394 which discloses a furniture polish concentrate containing dimethyl silicone and a poly(dimethyl)-copoly(methyl, oxygen containing) siloxane copolymer.
Furniture polish compositions based on silicone oils also suffer from a phenomenon known as “mottling”. Silicone oils tend to migrate into lower areas on the wood surface, such as imperfections (scratches, chips, etc.). This migration creates dull spots in the polished surface, or mottling. To prevent this migration, wax is added to anchor the silicone molecules to the surface. Ratios of emulsified wax:silicone oil as high as 1:1 have been used to anchor the silicone. However, the emulsified wax contains solid discrete particles which decrease the clarity of the resulting film or finish, and the hardness of the wax particles increases the amount of time and effort to buff the film to a shine.
Additionally, wax-containing formulations are more costly to produce because the wax must be heated to ensure it is adequately incorporated into the furniture polish composition.
Another feature of furniture polish that is important to consumers is ease of application, or spreadability. Polishes which are difficult or time consuming to apply uniformly are not desirable. Polishes including wax and/or in which the components of the polish are not adequately solubilized can suffer from this phenomenon.
Furniture polish is also expected to provide a shine to the treated surface. Polish compositions providing high shine or high gloss are viewed favorably by the consumer. Those compositions which can maintain the shine or gloss over time are most preferred.
Conventional silicone containing furniture compositions often create an undesirable greasy or oily-feeling surface.
In addition, prior art furniture compositions include amounts of volatile organic components (VOCs), most often in the form of organic solvents, that can be harmful to the environment and/or to those individuals who are utilizing the compositions. In recent years, there has been a desire to limit the amount of VOCs dispensed into the atmosphere in order to limit the detrimental effects of these VOCs on the atmosphere or environment. Further, while these organic solvents assist furniture polish compositions in making them easy to apply to a surface, they often require wiping a surface repeatedly to remove dust and buff to a shine. Additionally these organic solvent based furniture polishes leave behind residue or a greasy film on a surface treated with the polish. As such, there remains a need to provide a furniture polish composition which removes dust, is easy to spread and buff to a shine with minimal residue.
To achieve the goals desired by consumers and to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art, we have discovered furniture polish compositions which provide long-lasting, high gloss; are resistant to smears and heal smears quickly; and are resistant to mottling and are easy to apply. These compositions also provide a cleaner feeling surface. These compositions have improved solubilization of the components of the polish composition. Additionally, these compositions have reduced amounts of VOCs in the compositions to consequently reduce the detrimental effects of the compositions on the atmosphere.
Therefore, according to one aspect of this disclosure a silicone-based furniture polish composition is provided that better solubilizes the components of the polish composition with little or no heat required to be added to the composition during its formation, reducing the cost of manufacture.
According to another aspect of this disclosure a furniture polish composition is provided that is resistant to smears and heals smears rapidly.
According to yet another aspect of this disclosure an easy-to-use furniture polish is provided which results in a high gloss, long-lasting shine and a cleaner feeling surface.
According to still another aspect of this disclosure a furniture polish composition is provided that has greatly reduced amounts of VOCs in the composition.